Designing an ESP Course for Telecommunication Engineers in the Medical Diagnostics Industry: A Problem-Based Learning Approach

Аннотация

This article describes the design and development of an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course for eight Indian telecommunications engineers working for a global medical diagnostics company. These professionals, who have pre-intermediate English competence, require better language abilities for effective technical communication in foreign settings. The course, which follows a problem-based learning (PBL) approach, incorporates authentic problems, targeted vocabulary education, and interactive assessments to help participants improve their communication skills in their professional domain. Based on relevant ESP literature, this paper examines requirements analysis processes, course design reasoning, evaluation strategies, and the incorporation of real-world materials, demonstrating how theory and practice meet in a highly contextualized ESP setting. international conferences. While the engineers are Introduction: The increased demand for workplace capable of managing daily conversations, they struggle communication in technical disciplines has resulted in with professional communication and technical the creation of ESP courses that cater to specialized vocabulary. Their speaking and listening abilities are learner demands. This article describes the design of a insufficient for the demands of technical discussions, 12-week ESP course for eight Indian project meetings, and customer engagements. telecommunications engineers working for a medical diagnostics company. These personnel are in charge of The training takes place three times a week over 12 delivering technical support, training, and weeks, and focuses on enhancing listening presentations on the company's medical equipment to comprehension, technical vocabulary, and spoken global clientele. Despite their technical expertise, their communication in technical and workplace contexts limited English proficiency—particularly in technical related to telecommunications and medical vocabulary and spoken communication—creates diagnostics. difficulties in international settings. Needs Analysis This ESP course aims to bridge the gap between their A comprehensive needs analysis formed the existing language skills and their professional foundation of the course design. As emphasized by communication requirements. A problem-based Woodrow (2018), needs analysis is the critical first step learning (PBL) framework is used to imitate real-world in developing effective ESP instruction. Drawing on engineering difficulties, increase learner motivation, Long’s (2005) recommendation to gather data from and promote critical thinking, teamwork, and linguistic multiple sources, a triangulation method was competency in technical English. employed: ESP Context and Learner Profile • Questionnaires were distributed to the engineers to The intended learners are telecommunication gather information about their current skills, perceived engineers who assist with the design, installation, and weaknesses, and job-related language needs. maintenance of medical diagnostic equipment • Text analysis of technical documents (e.g., manuals, exported internationally. English is used for overseas repair guides) helped identify recurring linguistic installations, troubleshooting, technical training, and patterns and relevant vocabulary. American Journal Of Social Sciences And Humanity Research 136 https://theusajournals.com/index.php/ajsshr American Journal Of Social Sciences And Humanity Research (ISSN: 2771-2141) • Interviews were conducted via video calls with both specificity, validity, and practicality. Both formative and engineers and, where possible, their supervisors, to summative assessments are integrated to monitor gain deeper insight into professional expectations and learner progress and achievement. communication challenges. Formative Assessments (ongoing): This process ensured a multidimensional • Use Quizlet for vocabulary quizzes and receive fast understanding of learners' needs and minimized bias or feedback. error in course development (Cowling, 2007). • Perform listening tasks for technical presentations or Course Design and Theoretical Framework support calls. The course takes a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) • Simulating technical support calls, customer approach that combines constructivist and experiential briefings, and corporate meetings. learning principles. PBL puts learners at the center of Summative Assessments (end-of-course): real-world problem solving, encouraging them to use the target language while working on actual technical • Learners give a final oral presentation on a technical issues. This paradigm is consistent with the engineers' problem. daily tasks, such as diagnosing problems, providing • Comprehensive listening exam for sophisticated solutions, and explaining methods. technical speech. As Maxwell (2009) and Woodrow (2018) note, PBL • An analytic rubric measures fluency, organization, fosters not only language development but also pronunciation, a